Certain ball tossing apparatus or batting machines are designed to automatically propel balls upwardly from the apparatus to a height where they can be hit by a batter. Such machines are generally designed to operate continuously, i.e., unless deactivated they will continuously provide tosses at selected intervals.
Such ball tossing apparatus typically comprise a stationary housing with a means for propelling a ball upwardly mounted within the housing. In one type of ball tossing apparatus, the means for propelling a ball upwardly comprises a ball engaging member, e.g., a flexible strap, on which a ball introduced into the housing rests. The ball engaging member is moved from an upper position to a lower position against the force of a spring and then released so that the force of the spring causes the ball engaging member to rapidly return to its original upper position thereby propelling the ball upwardly out of the housing.
In such an apparatus, unless adjusted manually, the force of the spring is constant between successive tosses, and thus, the height of successive tosses is constant. Likewise, the upper and lower positions of the ball engaging member are generally constant. Because of this and the fact that the housing is stationary, the path or location of the ball on successive tosses is generally the same. This means that the height and location of successive tosses is totally predictable.
Since one of the purposes of a ball tossing apparatus as described above is to develop or enhance the hitting ability of a batter, there is a need to reduce the predictability of successive tosses to give a batter practice at hitting tosses which are inside and outside and are high and low as well as "down the middle".